Mrs. Leyman graduated in 1938 from Bippus High School. She received her Bachelor of Arts in business education and physical education at Ball State University in 1942, her Master of Science in physical education from Indiana University in 1951 and a Ph.D in 1955 from Indiana University.

She taught physical education in public schools in the Lebanon, Rochester and South Bend communities from 1942 to 1955. She was a professor in the physical education department at the State University of New York at Cortland from 1955 to 1985, and she retired as Professor Emeritus in 1985.

Ms. Leyman provided leadership for Indiana League High School Girls Athletic associations, and was a designated member of the Delta Kappa Gamma, an international society for key women educators. She was a founding member, former president and vice president of Cortland's Winning Way Investment Club.

She was a board member from 2003 to 2009 for the SUNY Cortland-Cortland College Foundation. She was a YWCA volunteer and benefactor. In the 1980s she volunteered to help with the YWCA's Bargain Box, a used-clothing fund-raiser that operated most of the year, she served as a YWCA trustee and was the treasurer for 15 years. She was a co-chairman and major donor in the "More Than You Imagine" capital campaign. She was honored with the naming of a YWCA facility, The Dr. LaRetha "Lee" Leyman Aquatic Center.

After she retired, she enjoyed traveling with Elderhostel on many occasions, volunteered with the NYS Senior Games and the Cortland County Convention and Tourism Bureau and assisted with hundreds of Senior Citizen's tax returns through a program jointly sponsored by the IRS and the American Association of Retired Persons.

She was born May 9, 1921, in Huntington County to Albert L. and Veda Blanche Wetters Leyman.